Jorge Pastor abandons the competitive practice of cycling, burdened by a physical problem: “I had to be realistic”
Jorge Pastor, from Alicante, abandons the competitive practice of cycling. The rider from Alcoy had not been able to compete yet this season with the colours of the Kometa Cycling Team sub23 because of an injury in his perineal area that forced him to go through the operating room at the end of last April. The ailment emerged at the end of last year, worsened at the beginning of the current one and motivated the great climber from Levante to take some time for reflection.
Pastor (June 26, 1996) was suffering from problems of numbness in his perineal area, some disorders that were more and more and prevented him from riding a bicycle normally. “At the ending of the year I began to feel some discomfort, but more or less I could continue training. But the pains got worse, especially in mid-January. It was impossible for me to sit on the saddle. I went to the urologist. Initially it was assessed that it was the cause of a varicose vein, so I set a couple of weeks off. But after this time I returned to the road and the pain was still there,” he explains.
Having consulted various medical sources, the next option went through the operating room. The forecast of an intervention for the month of April or May prevented the presence on the roads until well past the summer, a news that demolished the seasonal forecasts outlined during the first winter concentration at Oliva Nova Beach & Golf Resort, a first meeting where he shared a room with the Italian Alessandro Fancellu. “It was a stick, especially because all the work of the winter with a view to the Cup of Spain was nothing. It was a tough moment. I stopped everything. I had no motivation. I chose to follow the Social Security deadlines, but it became clearer and clearer to me that this phase was over”.
They were not very lively moments for the cyclist, one of the best riders who have passed through the sub23 structure of the Alberto Contador Foundation for his commitment, for his joviality and for his dedication. Shepherd, by age, elite of first year, had marked in his internal forum the year 2019 as the one of his jump to the professionalism, if it was possible. “2019 had been presented to me as a whole or nothing,” the Pastor himself told Nostre Periodic at the beginning of the year, days before his discomfort worsened.
“Given my age, and that this season I wasn’t going to be able to do anything at all, the best thing to do was to be aware of the situation. You had to be realistic. It’s a shame, because I love this sport. The bicycle is very important in my daily life. But as you get older the jump becomes more complicated, the funnel closes even more and we must not lose sight of the fact that there are young boys who come stepping very hard,” he completes.
Pastor passed through the operating table at the end of April, but that first intervention did not stop the discomfort. The surgeon himself warned him that it had not been entirely satisfactory and he would have to undergo surgery again. The Alicante began to ride a bicycle a few weeks later, very calmly, with no calendar, no obligations … But still with discomfort. “That’s when I decided definitively that I’d rather wait, stop, step aside and assess the whole situation”.
“I am very grateful to the team, at all times has supported me in the decision I made. I also wanted to thank them for the position they took with me,” said the Alicante. “Beyond the downturn of the first moments, in the end is something very meditated, there is nothing hot. I couldn’t even be in the presentation, I didn’t want to be there knowing that it was going to be difficult for me. Now I’m enjoying another way. The truth is that it’s been hard for me to get out of the competition a little bit, but I’m happy with my decision. In the end it’s a risky bet and you have to value everything. And I’m going to continue riding my bike, of course, sporadically, to enjoy… But it’s something I’m not going to give up”.
In 2018 Pastor was one of the best in such demanding climbs as Hedroso, in the Vuelta a Zamora, as the Puerto de Mijares, in the Vuelta a Ávila, as in the terrible Alto del Angliru of the Vuelta a Vetusta, where he finished in an outstanding ninth place. “Cycling is a very sacrificed sport. I don’t regret having lived this time, they have been wonderful years, I’ve met a lot of people, I’ve been in many places. Cycling is such a great sport that it offers many possibilities without being on top of a bike. Who knows what the future will bring us,” reflects a Pastor who finished a Higher Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics and next year will practice in Valencia.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
